Tom, You hit the nail on the head. A virtual experience absolutely cannot replace the power of the artifact, particularly when placed in context, such as at a living history site or a historic house museum. Furthermore, I believe you made a good point regarding home-bound visitors - something I hadn't even considered. The other thing that occurs to me regarding exhibits on-line is, this affords the museum to tell the story from another perspective, and to provide a more educational twist to it than is sometimes afforded during a regular visit, for whatever reason. (Huge crowds comes to mind. One of the museums I worked for frequently saw multiple thousands of school children per day. And this figure does not account for ticket purchases at the gate. I do not exaggerate.) Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village provide us with two good examples of this: I recommend the Living Under Enslavement Link and the Colonial Family experience on their SmartFun OnLine page <http://www.hfmgv.org/education/smartfun/index.html>. This doesn't make the on-site exhibit obsolete in any way. Its educational function is complete in and of itself, but it also serves as an orientation and a springboard for a better in-person visit. I'd be interested to hear what others think of this online experience. Cheers, Rob ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).